


Our faded polaroids (and the songbirds that sung them)

by sunshine_kitcat (moonkevin)



Series: The story of my life (told in the tune of yours) [11]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Coming of Age, Cute, Family, Internalized Homophobia, Metaphors, Other, Single Parents, its just cute fluff, yuta is jaemin's single dad and this is a bad telling of their story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 19:15:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20698505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonkevin/pseuds/sunshine_kitcat
Summary: There’s a familiar click of a weathered yellow Polaroid camera on Jaemin’s tenth anniversary. All of his friends are there to watch as Renjun beat his boyfriends at Beer Pong for the millionth time. Chenle grins as another photo prints out from his camera, a fond expression as he watches his friend’s antics. The new additions to their group fit in fine, clumsy Mark, sly Donghyuck and beanpole Jisung.The doorbells rings, and the group expected Pizza.It’s a package instead.





	Our faded polaroids (and the songbirds that sung them)

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Winter - AJR

_Dear Winter, I hope you like your name_

_I hope they don't make fun of you_

_When you grow up and go to school, okay?_

_'Cause Winter is a badass name_

In the window of a home, far up above the busy streets of Seoul, a songbird chirps its good morning. There’s a scent of freshly laundered uniforms and well-practiced bacon, intertwined in puffs of conversation. There’s a bubbly conversation between an excited 7-year-old and a fond 28-year-old, closely watched over by the sunlit window just meters away. Somewhere in the apartment, there’s a folder that made this two-person family real in the law’s eyes. Jaemin, who was 5 when he was adopted, had buzzed with questions about his new family for the entire 10 minute car ride home. There had been a rain cloud over the orphanage just days ago, but sunshine came in the form of a lonely graphic designer with too much time at home. Yuta was Jaemin’s angel.

The kids at school make fun of Jaemin’s last name, but he always puts on a brave smile and defend that he doesn’t care what they think because Jaemin is proud to have such a wonderful father.

Yuta may have cried a little.

_Dear Winter, I hope you talk to girls_

_Or boys or anyone you like_

_I just hope you don't stay in every night_

_'Cause I wish I was out tonight_

At age 8, Jaemin finds his best friend and future boyfriend, but the second bit comes at age 16. Jeno is all smiles and giggles, with a extra large dosage of cats. The other male transferred into Jaemin’s class in third grade, with fading memories of a mother who left him and a father who rarely goes out. Maybe Jaemin saw himself in the other boy, or maybe it was just Jeno’s protective nature, but their intertwined pinkies shimmers with promise on Halloween night.

Yuta, ecstatic about his son’s new friend, welcomes Jeno with open arms. The first time Doyoung and Yuta meet, Jaemin wonders if the world was about to combust. Doyoung was like ice, cold and distant to anyone not Jeno. Yuta, on the other hand, was fire. Passionate and social, to the point where one would have never known Yuta worked from home. Both knows loneliness to well, and both loved too warily.

At age 9, Jaemin and Jeno vowed to make their parents find company.

_Ah_

_It really doesn't seem like there's anyone for me_

_But dear Winter, I hope you like your name_

_I'm hoping that someday, I can meet you on this Earth_

_But shit, I gotta meet your mom first_

There’s apple juice and fruit cakes in Jaemin’s first kiss, aged 16. There’s too much tongue, and the dim lighting of the school gym wasn’t dark enough to cover his blush. The boy in his arms isn’t Jeno, which eats at Jaemin in ways he can’t comprehend yet. Renjun was beautiful in ways Jeno wasn’t, and Jaemin feels horrible for feeling that way for two different people.

He came home that night with puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks, and Yuta wordlessly handed him a glass of water. They sat on the couch, Yuta working on his latest project and Jaemin quietly sniffling. As the clock strikes ten and the city lights start to turn off, a tumbling mess of words echoes throughout the apartment. Hatred stings every consonant while every vowel was laced with confusion. Yuta listened without a word, only a soothing hand on Jaemin’s back.

Jaemin was 16 when he accepted that he was different, and that that was perfectly okay.

_Dear Winter, I hope you like this song_

_And even when you're thirteen_

_And you scream at me for parenting you wrong_

_I hope it's still a badass song_

Somewhere under a mountain of old science projects and art projects lies a photo. Grainy in film and quality, but if one looked close enough, there’s a fine tear line across the middle. Tears of frustrations and words filled with regrets whispers their broken love from the tear, reliving an argument neither side wanted to remember. A photo that used to hand on the fridge, of a father and his son in the cherry blossom covered trails of Japan. The photo that was torn in anger and frustration, starting with Yuta trying talk his son out of internalized polyphobia and ending with Jaemin screaming about how he’d never be like this if circumstances were different.

Somewhere in the world is the yellow polaroid camera that took the photo, sold to pawn shop who went bankrupt too soon. The goods were all handed down to the shopkeeper’s son, a little boy named Chenle. Chenle always wanted a camera, unaware of the memories that camera had captured already. A new roll of film was placed in the camera, and it’s now making a thousand more stories. It watches as kids grow up, yet the memory of its first photo stands broken in the home of a happy family.

Jaemin ran to Jeno’s house that night, and Doyoung flat out dragged him home.

The tear was taped back the next day.

_It really doesn't seem like there's anyone for me_

_But dear Winter, I hope you like your name_

_I'm hoping that someday, I can meet you on this Earth_

_But shit, I gotta meet your mom first_

On Jaemin’s graduation day, there were two boys in his arms and a graduation gown two sizes too small on his lanky frame. There’s a boy younger than him behind the camera, a yellow polaroid camera filled with memories harsh and gentle. There’s a loud cheer from the sidelines, torn from the mouth of an overjoyed father and his exasperated boyfriend. There’s a songbird on a nearby branch, singing its tune as Yuta and Doyoung watches their son leave the nest.

There’s the underlying fear of never seeing Jaemin again, with his scholarship to a school too far from home. Maybe by the holidays Jaemin and Jeno, boyfriends and half brothers (there was a weird underlying message, but both side decided to brush it off as no blood tie was implied) will have forgotten about their families. Maybe they’ll start spending summers and winter breaks at a new company, working away to tell the stories of people not too different then them.

Yuta pulls Renjun aside that afternoon, and the Chinese male had reassured Yuta before the question was even asked.

Jaemin was in good hands.

_Dear Winter, don't move too far away_

_And please don't say I'm hovering_

_When I text you to ask about your day_

_I wanna hear about your day_

Their second major fight came in Jaemin’s first year of college. Jaemin wants to change his major, moving him even further from home. Jeno and Renjun are both already planning to change schools with him, their worries disappearing at the prospect of a better school. Yuta wats his son to stay, an attempt to lessen the distance that one day might grow between the pair. Jaemin calls him overprotective, and they don’t talk for 3 months.

It was Doyoung who made the call.

And it was Jeno who answered.

A little songbird chirped its good morning when they finish talking, 5 hours of chatter to fill up a 3-month gap. Yuta finally lets Jaemin go, and their love is only stronger. From then on, Jaemin tells Yuta about his week regularly.

_Ah_

_Will we still hang out and talk when I'm no longer in charge?_

_Oh, dear Winter, I hope you like your name_

_I hope you let me take a shot with you on your twenty-first_

_But shit, you gotta ask your mom first_

Yuta got married at 40.

His parents tell him he did things backward. They expected in-laws before a grandchild, but Yuta was always unconventional. It was a summer wedding, three days before Jaemin’s birthday. 8-year-old Jaemin would’ve complained about all the attention being redirected to someone other than him, but 19-year old Jaemin cheers on the top of his lungs as the vows ends. Or maybe 8-year-old Jaemin would cheer too. He was always a selfless one.

The after party consists of Yuta sliding a shot glass over to Jaemin, winking as Doyoung leaves for the bathroom. The link arms and throw it back, Jaemin coughing as he ingested alcohol for the first time in front of his parents. Normal parents would’ve been concerned about where he drank before. Yuta gave him a sly smirk instead.

And Doyoung? He asked Jaemin whether or not they could order a full round of shots.

_Dear Winter, I'm looking for your mom_

_I gotta find a girl that doesn't mind that I'm inside my head a lot_

_Winter, it won't be too long_

_First, I just gotta find your mom_

There’s a familiar click of a weathered yellow Polaroid camera on Jaemin’s tenth anniversary. All of his friends are there to watch as Renjun beat his boyfriends at Beer Pong for the millionth time. Chenle grins as another photo prints out from his camera, a fond expression as he watches his friend’s antics. The new additions to their group fit in fine, clumsy Mark, sly Donghyuck and beanpole Jisung.

The doorbells rings, and the group expected Pizza.

It’s a package instead.

One gift, addressed to Jaemin and Jeno simultaneously. The sound of crinkling paper echoing throughout the apartment as the pair unboxed the beautifully wrapped box.

There was a shiny blue Polaroid camera.

It seems Chenle has been demoted to assistant photographer.


End file.
